Welcome back to a miniseries within the Friday Know-It-All that we call “Return to the Computer Lab.” This is a semi-regular series in which our editorial staff explore the beloved computer games of our childhoods. (Are you surprised to learn many of us spent a lot of time on the computer?) Editor Sophie is here this week to talk about movie tie-ins and hoaxes.

Before we can get into this “Return to the Computer Lab” proper, take a trip with me to my local Blockbuster circa 1997. We’re here today to grab a copy of “FairyTale: A True Story,” a film about that time two young girls tricked Arthur Conan Doyle into thinking they had seen real fairies, except, like, what if they really did see some fairies though, you guys? Also, Harry Houdini as played by Harvey Keitel is there for some reason.

The thing is: It is a true story! If you haven’t heard about the Cottingley Fairies hoax before, here’s a quick rundown: Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, cousins living in the village of Cottingley in West Yorkshire, took two photos in 1917 that appeared to show the girls interacting with fairies they claimed to have met by the stream behind Elsie’s house. When Elsie’s mom attended a lecture on the topic of fairies in 1919, she brought the photos along with her. As they circulated from there, they caught the attention of noted Theosophist Edward Gardner, who began including the photos in his own lectures. Gardner even brought them to an expert in doctored photographs, who certified that the images were “entirely genuine and unfaked photographs of single exposure, open air work, show movement in all fairy figures, and there is no trace whatever of studio work involving card or paper models, dark background, painted figures, etc.”

With that endorsement, the Cottingley Fairy photos really took off. It was at this point that the photographs finally made their way into the hands of their biggest proponent: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle — you know, the guy who created Sherlock Holmes. He subsequently wrote them into an article about fairies for The Strand Magazine. At Gardner and Conan Doyle’s urging, the girls took three more photos in 1920, which Conan Doyle published in his work “The Coming of the Fairies.” In that book, he describes the photographs as “either the most elaborate and ingenious hoax ever played upon the public, or else they constitute an event in human history which may in the future appear to have been epoch-making in its character.” Well, they certainly were one of those two things.

(I don’t want to overstate the sway the Cottingley Fairy photos had over the general public. While it’s certainly interesting to focus on those who believed in them, especially considering how fake the photos look to a modern eye, it’s also important to note that there were plenty of skeptics at the time the photos were released.)

In the ’80s, Elsie and Frances finally admitted to faking the photos, which they’d done by copying illustrations from a children’s book and adding various fae-like accoutrements, then posing them using hatpins. Part of the reason it took the cousins so long to admit to the hoax was because they were embarrassed to have fooled someone as famous and well-regarded as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In a 1983 interview with the BBC, Frances said: “I can't understand to this day why people were taken in. They wanted to be taken in. People often say to me, ‘Don't you feel ashamed that you have made all these poor people look like fools? They believed in you.’ But I do not, because they wanted to believe.”

That’s quite a lot of backstory when we’re not even really here to talk about the classic art of getting duped by children. We’re actually here to talk about video games. So let’s boot up my parents’ dusty old HP Pavilion and get into it.

It is, I must admit, a bit of a stretch to call the subject of this “Return to the Computer Lab” entry a video game. Its own creators couldn’t even commit to it, instead slapping the label “FairyTale – A True Story: Activity Center” onto the jewel case. (The marketing team also brazenly refers to it as being “Based on the Hit Movie,” despite the film coming in at No. 102 on the list of highest-grossing films of 1997.)

Experiencing it as an adult, “FairyTale – A True Story: Activity Center” moves at an exceptionally slow pace. I watched this video of someone playing the game almost entirely at 2x speed and still felt like it dragged, which probably means it was the perfect pace for me as a 5- or 6-year-old. A low-resolution, upsettingly gray FMV fairy named Nanny Buttoncap tutorializes the activities for you as you explore, though once she runs out of things to say she simply descends into shouting “Welcome back!” every time you move between scenes. Let me be your Nanny Buttoncap as I take you on a tour of the veritable smorgasbord of activities on offer.

The Beck: A lush rendering of Cottingley Beck, where Frances and Elsie staged their photos — “beck” being an old-timey word for a stream or brook. This could’ve been a really cool area, but you mostly just pan left and right and click on flowers and mushrooms to unlock extra materials for other bits of the game. This is also where you go to take your very own fairy photos.

Dark Room: Go here to develop your photos. I didn’t bother listening to Nanny Buttoncap’s instructions when playing this game as a child, and therefore did not understand what I needed to do to get my photos out of the camera.

The Attic: Frances and Elsie’s room. Where you go to play puzzles, concentration games, write stories in your “very own journal” (which you can decorate with fairy photos, if you manage to get them developed). Watching that gameplay video, I was very charmed by a message instructing players that “You can print your picture from a graphics application called ‘Paint.’”

Joseph’s Room: Head here to do word searches, read Joseph’s folio or fairy factbook, “look up words in the fairy dictionary,” and paint. The painting activity delivered the single greatest nostalgia bomb I’ve felt in years. Just look at the gooey texture of those paints. I’d forgotten how many hours I used to spend awkwardly, painstakingly coloring in this game until I saw it again. That texture is imprinted on the deepest recesses of my memory.

The Theater: Where you’ll go to design theater sets (lots of printer capability in this game, turns out) and view scenes from the “FairyTale” movie. The theater also includes a two-part game called “Houdini’s Great Escape Challenge.” The first part has you helping Houdini escape from his Water Torture Cell. I remember feeling deeply stressed out by this minigame as Houdini urgently blubs in the chamber and his assistants exclaim that they can’t bear to look. The second part of the minigame is just you freeing Houdini from a series of padlocks while learning fun facts, such as: Houdini was born in March of 1874, but he always told people his birthday was April 6.

Last, but certainly not least for your humble Trivia Mafia staffer, the theater offers you the opportunity to test your fairy knowledge with a little game of trivia. I’ve painstakingly transcribed a selection of questions for you here, if you care to play along:

What’s the fairy word for a fairy ring? A. Circle, B. Gallitrap, C. Den
What is a fairy’s favorite food? A. Candy, B. Mushrooms, C. Cake
What is a fairy’s favorite drink? A. Cream, B. Water, C. Tea
What plant do fairies not like? A. Nettle, B. Clover, C. Thistle
What spice do fairies not like? A. Pepper, B. Garlic, C. Salt
What lucky charm do fairies hate? A. Coins, B. Horseshoes, C. Clover
What kind of walking stick will stop glamour from leading you off your path? A. Bamboo, B. Oak, C. Rowan
What article of clothing can you turn inside out to find your way back on a path? A. Coat, B. Trousers, C. Hat

There you have it: every possible activity in “FairyTale – A True Story: Activity Center,” based on the hit 1997 movie “FairyTale: A True Story.”

Bonus nostalgia moment for me: In addition to the activity center, “FairyTale” also managed to spin off a surprisingly well-made line of dolls, known as “The Fairies of Cottingley Glen.” I had Queen Mab when I was little, and I desperately wish I knew what happened to her. (If I won the lottery today I wouldn't tell anyone but There Would Be Signs, etc., etc.)

And that’s all there is to know this week. Thanks for reading! – Editor Sophie

Answers: 1. B, 2. C, 3. A, 4. B, 5. C, 6. B (Counterpoint, game: you just said that fairies also dislike clover. SoWhatIstheTruth.gif), 7. C, 8. A.
Disclaimer: If you have any feedback regarding these questions, please direct it to the good folks at Knowledge Adventure Inc., which seems to have turned into JumpStart Games in 2012 and ended support for all of their games except “Neopets” (!!) in 2023. So, good luck there, I guess.